Policies
Faculty Development is a resource for faculty who wish to improve their teaching and their students’ learning. Confidentiality is the cornerstone of our Center and is important to build trust with the faculty we serve. The teaching assessment services that we provide are formative in nature and neither summative nor evaluative. Faculty Development services are consultative in nature and act as feedback to instructors so that they can improve. Our services are not meant to be used for yearly evaluations, in the hiring process, or in the promotion and tenure process, unless the instructor chooses to do so.
- Classroom Observations with or without Student Feedback Sessions and Other Consultations (for all faculty)
Faculty Development respects the confidentiality of any individual consultation that occurs between a faculty member and the Faculty Development staff. When a faculty member requests an individual consultation, a classroom observation, or a mid-semester student feedback session, these encounters are considered private. The Faculty Development staff will not share any information about the consultation with any third party, except at the request of that faculty member. Faculty members may choose to use this information as part of their annual reports or the promotion and tenure process.
- General Faculty Teaching and Seminars
Faculty Development keeps a record of the names of faculty members who attend our regularly scheduled teaching and technology training sessions. We collect this data for two reasons: 1) we use the numbers of faculty that we helped for our year-end reports and assessments, and 2) we use the records to provide individual faculty members with training transcripts for their annual report (see Faculty Development website under Transcripts). If a faculty member does not wish for their name be recorded, we will honor that request and record an anonymous attendee. These records are not public and the data is used by Faculty Development only in aggregate form.
The following programs are exceptions to the Confidentiality Policy
- New Faculty Programs
The University requires all new slotted faculty members to attend the New Faculty Orientation and New Faculty Academy Seminar Series during their first year. Faculty Development reports faculty attendance at these events to the chairs, deans and provost. Teaching Associate (Adjunct) Orientation is also reported to chairs, deans, and provosts upon request.
- Associate Faculty Orientation
Attending this orientation is optional, attendance is reported upon request to department chairs and college deans. - Graduate Teaching Assistant Orientation
Attendance is required and reported to the Associate Provost of Graduate Studies and direct supervisors upon request.
- Letters of Support or Recommendation for Faculty
If a faculty member requests a letter of support or recommendation from a Faculty Development staff member, we may use specific information about the faculty member and our services that are relevant to the request. Faculty making the request understand that they are allowing Faculty Development to disclose relevant confidential information.